Must-see Japanese Movies

[terry the lone wolf]

Sonny Chiba in The Bodyguard aka Viva Chiba! The Bodyguard!

This is the movie where QT got the infamous Ezekiel speech that Sam Jackson used in Pulp Fiction..

[terry the lone wolf]

Tokyo Drifter. Ranked no. 15 of Ranker.com's top 50 Yakuza movies. I saw this on Turner Classic Movies; violent movie with a killer theme song..

http://www.ranker.com/pics/N1000119413/tokyo-drifter-films-photo-u3

[Jefuemon]

The original "Shall We Dance?" is pretty good, too. Avoid the American remake!! And, try to get the Japanese version, instead of the export version. There's about 15-20 minutes of additional footage, and rearranged narration in the original version.

Oh, and all the movies I've linked to on Amazon Japan come with English subtitles. As long as you've got a Region 2 or Region Free DVD player, go for it!

[Dynaman]

You must not like campy action films then?

I do, very much, just not ones that are so terrible. This one was not even terrible funny, it was just terrible. Only real plus is the Samurai fighting the tank

[Gubaba]

Err... what about "Robo-Geisha"...?

[Chas]

Already been mentioned, and seconded, but I gotta say again all of OZU's oeuvre and definitely Tampopo. you've already mentioned Kurosawa, but aside from the standard (Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Rashomon etc) Dersu Uzala (デルス·ウザーラ), and Dreams (夢) are both must sees.

[mecha2241]

I'm surprised Battle Royale hasn't been mentioned.

[treatment]

Not sure if you'd seen any heian-era stuff, but it's a little bit different from the usual top-knot/tokugawa-era samurai stuff.

Sansho the Bailiff (blu-ray) was released last month: http://www.criterion.com/films/823-sansho-the-bailiff

and Gate of Hell is coming out next month: http://www.criterion.com/films/28199-gate-of-hell

Both of these are must-watch, but they're really old-school stuff.

Edited March 16, 2013 by treatment

[Dynaman]

Anyone mention Zatoichi? I've only seen the latest one but have the older ones in my Netflix queue.

[Frogze]

If the absence of katanas fights, giant monsters or crazed yakuzas aren't a turnoff for you I suggest Departures : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/

[Voltes5]

I've seen most of the movies listed here, but this one was hilarious:

Shall We Dance?

Edited March 22, 2013 by Voltes5

[Voltes5]

Nobody Knows

[areaseven]

Edited March 25, 2013 by areaseven

[Duke Togo]

Shall We Dance is good, Departures is excellent.

[Voltes5]

That was a good movie ;-)

[electric indigo]

Just saw "Confessions" on TV and it was quite an experience.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1590089/